


My Sun, My Stars

by mysticmajestic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Eventual shance, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mind Control, Season 5 Spoilers, Violence, slow-burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 00:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13846215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysticmajestic/pseuds/mysticmajestic
Summary: Determined to see Shiro out of the clutches of Haggar's hands once and for all, Lance sets into motion a series of events that could not only save Shiro's life and sanity, but destroy what remains of the Galra Empire.





	My Sun, My Stars

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of feelings after watching season 5. Please do not read this unless you have watched the full season! I also chose this to be the fic for day 17 of Shance Month: Void. I thought it was a pretty fitting choice. 
> 
> **Note:** This first chapter acts as more of a prologue. I've rewritten the scene in question with some added thoughts from Shiro and Lance to build on the scene, but in the next chapter I'm going to have completely new material. 
> 
>  
> 
> [Follow me on Tumblr!](http://mystic-majestic.tumblr.com/)

There’s something wrong with him.

Shiro doesn’t know how to explain it, but deep down inside he just…he just _knows_. The way he’s been acting lately has been worrying his team. He argued with Allura, he _snapped at Lance_. Without letting the team know, he flew Lotor out in the Black Lion to Galra-infested territory. There are black spots in his memory.

And whilst black spots in his memory aren’t anything new, these feel _different_. There’s never anything going on that would trigger him into a flashback. He’s always, always with the team in a briefing. There’s a split second where he experiences an uncomfortable pull in his stomach, and then before he knows it everyone’s come down to a decision and turning to him to make the final call.

Despite having blacked out for a bit, he knows what they’ve said down to the last word. Every pause between sentences, he’s got memorised. And something compels him, always, to shoot them down. It’s not—it’s not _right_. None of this is natural.

He watches the team work—actually, he watches Coran, Pidge, and Hunk work. Restless, all Lance does is fret and complain about what Allura and Lotor might be up to. On a regular day, Shiro might have found it amusing, but now he’s focused and worried about his own issues. On the stuff he’s done, the things he’s said. On all the things that have happened because of him that just…doesn’t sit right.

He wants to unburden himself somehow. If the oxygen levels weren’t so low, he’d be tempted to take his frustration, his fears, on the androids in the training room. And everyone else is so busy with other things, it wouldn’t really be fair. Besides, there’s no one who can really understand where he’s coming from, right?

“Shiro!” Pidge cries, when Lance’s fidgeting and worrying gets to be a little too much to handle. “Will you take Lance, please?!”

Lance.

_“Hey, Shiro, what were you trying to tell me in that void thing earlier?”_

_“What do you mean?”_

_“You were shouting at me…but I couldn’t hear you.”_

What did he mean by that? What did he mean that Shiro was yelling at him in the ‘void’? Not only that, but why? The one thing Shiro can’t remember is that moment right there. That supposed moment when he tried talking to Lance. Now’s the perfect time to find out.

“Come on, Lance,” says Shiro, beckoning for Lance to follow him. Then he turns around and leaves the bridge, hearing Lance’s defeated groan but also the _tak-tak-tak_ of his footsteps. Good, he’s following. They can have this conversation sooner rather than later.

“It’s okay, Shiro,” says Lance once they’re outside. He knocks his head against the wall, glum with defeat. “You don’t have to babysit me.”

“Lance, let me ask you something,” says Shiro, pausing momentarily to get his bearings and figure out his words. If he screws up the first time around, he doubts he’ll have the energy to try a second time. “Do you remember…on Olkarion…how you asked me about…talking to you from inside Voltron?”

At once, Lance straightens up and turns around. His desolate expression turns into a serious-worried hybrid. “Yeah.”

“What happened there? I can’t remember any of it.” Any time he tries, he gets a blinding headache that incapacitates him for an hour or two. He learned quickly to give up trying.

“Well…we were all in some mystical Voltron mind-space, and you were yelling something, but I couldn’t understand you.” Lance glances at the floor, troubled.

 _That makes two of us,_ thinks Shiro.

“Are you okay?” Lance adds.

If that isn’t a loaded question…Shiro sighs. “I—I don’t know. My head—I’m just. I’m just feeling so confused. It’s like—”

But no, he can’t voice that fear of his. That gives it credence. Maybe if he continues to ignore the issue, it will just go away. It’s worked, occasionally, with all the other stuff he’s been dealing with. Besides, how can he unload this fear of his onto his teammate? He’s burdened everyone enough—

“What?” Lance asks when Shiro falters.

The raw, naked concern in his gaze bolsters Shiro up a bit, knowing that someone still cares even if he’s been such a freaking jerk lately.

The words slip out without conscious thought.

“It’s like I’m not myself.”

There’s a flicker of something in Lance’s gaze. It’s gone before Shiro can decipher it.

His attempt at a reassuring smile falls a bit flat, and Shiro’s worry spikes; has he made the wrong choice? Was keeping his silence the better option? God, how could he be so stupid—

“It’s probably just lack of oxygen,” says Lance finally, motioning for Shiro to sit. “You should sit down.”

Lack of oxygen, Shiro thinks, holding back a wry chuckle. If only that was it.

He sits down in the hallway with Lance. That’s the end of their conversation. Maybe Shiro’s issues are way too much. Heck, sometimes they’re too much for him. Next time, he’ll just keep them to himself. His team cannot help; there are more important things to worry about without him adding extras to their overburdened plates.

No, he’ll continue to deal with this on his own. That method’s always worked in the past, there’s no reason to assume that it won’t now.

 

* * *

 

Lance watches Shiro for a while, sitting out in that empty hallway with their oxygen levels slowly depleting. He thinks on their conversation, on his own thoughts and feelings from the past few weeks, and everything starts to fall into place.

There really is something off about Shiro. He’s been acting so erratic lately. Snapping at everyone, going behind their backs. You’d have to be blind not to see that something’s up.

He’s glad that Shiro came to him, in a way that he’s also weirdly glad that it was him Shiro tried to speak to in the weird astral plane. Shiro sees him as someone worthy of coming to with his concerns, his fears. Though he’s unsure what he did to earn that privilege, he’s not about to squander the one real chance he gets to help out his amazing leader and childhood hero.

 _And I’m going to help you, Shiro,_ he thinks. _No matter what._


End file.
